Just when we thought that Jesus’ love was all embracing and all compassionate, he shocks us by behaving in a way that can only be described as harsh and unfeeling. In today’s gospel Jesus is approached by a Canaanite woman, who pesters him to cure her daughter. ‘Canaanite’ was the name given to the older inhabitants of Israel who were dispossessed as unclean by Jesus’
To the amazement of his friends, Peter climbed over the side of the boat. Before his feet even touched the water, he knew that it was really Jesus out there waiting for him. Afterwards he was never able to describe what it was like to walk on water, and he needed the other disciples to confirm for him that it really had happened. He remembered
“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure buried in a field; which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all he has and buys it.” In
Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a field in which the master has sown good seed. In the night, an enemy comes and plants weeds, so when the crop grows it is a mixture of wheat and weed. The servants’ instinct is to pull the weeds out, but the master demands that the bad grow alongside the good … he himself will sort the
In one ear and out of the other,” is an expression that could be applied to most of us, for at least some of the time. Today’s gospel is about the difference between simply hearing something and really listening. Jesus uses the parable of the sower and the seeds to illustrate the different ways in which God’s word can be received … or not! Firstly
How often do we laughingly say, “….Out of the mouths of babes!” We usually say it when one of the junior members of our family has stated a glaring or embarrassing truth. To children the truth is black and white, but the older we get the more we tend to complicate issues that really ought to be very simple. Perhaps we want to dress up
